Twitter IPO worked, not ACA system, though

Other systems worked, but not ACA’s

Twitter had a successful initial stock offering, where billions of dollars of stock was sold in hours, and Wall Street’s computers worked flawlessly.

In comparison, the Affordable Care Act’s computers have staggered just trying to handle thousands of inquires and registrations. That’s just registration, the easy part.

The real threat to our care lies ahead with the software development for processing billions of bits of ACA data. This is necessary to qualify individuals’ income, subsidies, waivers, age, etc. and interfacing with the IRS, SSA, Medicaid, Medicare, hospitals, physicians and payments to thousands of insurance and drug firms. Then there is the ACA scoring of hospitals and physicians to adjust their payments.

A law fixing portability, pre-existing conditions and tort reform could solve the big issues with health care and save billions.

Herb Tuttle

San Diego

No one noticed $360K in stolen ink?

Regarding the case of Rommel Asunción stealing $360,000 worth of printer cartridges from the county over five years (“Board cuts ex-worker’s county pension benefit,” Dec. 6), even if he was the sole person in charge of ordering supplies, someone in that department in charge of budget oversight is at least guilty of incompetence or dereliction of duty. It would seem that sum would buy cartridges for 10 departments, not just one.

Neil Gibbs

San Diego

Salton Sea must be reinvigorated

Steven Greenhut may be a little young to remember what the Salton Sea was like back in the early 1960s. It was exactly the fantastic, pristine place he claims never existed (“Salton Sea may become financial sinkhole,” Dec. 5).

Although the sea as we now know it is a man-made accident created in the early 20th century, it was actually a much larger lake for many thousands of years. Regardless, the simple fact is if it is left to dry up, the consequences will be devastating for humans and animals alike.

It would cost money to fix and maintain, but a doable proposal based on a tunnel/pipeline from the Sea of Cortez would be a fantastic way of bringing in salt water from the ocean to keep the sea at a consistent level and salinity. Once this is accomplished, the land around the sea will become incredibly desirable like it once was.

Alan Iglesias

Escondido

Raising wages would not hurt big business

Steve Breen’s editorial cartoon on the minimum wage (Dec. 5), while colorful, is wrong on so many levels.

During the Senate hearing with the restaurant industry, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren explained that if the minimum wage since 1960 had kept pace with the nation’s economic growth, the minimum wage would now be $22 per hour. She pointed out that a meal at McDonald’s that cost $7.19 would need to be increased by 4 cents, bringing the new price to $7.23.

When the Walton family, owners of Walmart, have incomes in the billions, it’s a little hard to swallow that they cannot afford a living wage for their employees.

The middle class is disappearing, military families are having to rely on food stamps, the homeless seem to be increasing daily, and people are losing their homes. In the meantime, the wealthy are getting richer. The philosophy of trickle-down economics failed to factor in greed.

Patricia Hall

Tierrasanta

Minimum-wage jobs are a first step

Striking for “living wages” in the fast-food industry is ridiculous.

These jobs are not jobs meant for raising a family. They provide work experience and are for those looking for additional cash.

Workers need to take their experience and grow it into an education to better themselves and strive to gain employment in an industry that will provide living wages.

Curtis Daniels

Oceanside

Lots of good people out there

Recently, I was standing in our kitchen talking with my son when a pain struck in my back and I could hardly breathe. I went to the emergency room at Scripps Encinitas and was admitted for five days. I was finally released with a walker Nov. 5.

I use the walker everywhere I go. I have had experience after experience where complete strangers stopped what they were doing to help me. The other day I was at Costco pulling up to my car in the electric cart the store provides when a man unloaded the cart and returned it for me. If I am in a store, people reach out to get products off the shelf to help.

This happens to me every day. I have absolutely been in tears when strangers have dropped what they are doing to help.

Have faith, the good people are out there in droves. The human race is alive and well, and to all you who have helped me, bless you and yours.

I can only repay your kindness by helping others when I am well.

Jan Statman

Carlsbad

Unions living in some other world

When the problem with government pensions comes up it is astounding to me how the comments from union people seem to be so out of touch with reality.

Reasonable citizens understand that workers in the public and private sectors need to make decent wages and have decent retirements. However, some of the problems I see with the government union mentality is they have a near monopoly on the services they provide; they think they are indispensable. Many seem to think they are entitled to something more then everyone else.

If wages and pensions were in line with what is paid in the private sector, we probably would not be in this mess. Today it’s easy to base pay and benefits in the private sector to similar jobs in the public sector. If government pensions want to pay their retirees based on unrealistic market returns that’s own their business, but the taxpayers should not have to cover the difference if the markets slump. Financial advisers tell us a reasonable rate of return on a retirement account is 4 percent, yet government pensions pay 7 percent or more. This is financial suicide.

A good friend of mine who passed away a few years ago was a well-respected official for a large union. He was highly thought of on both sides of the table because he understood both sides need to win. Employees need to make a decent living, and the business needs to make a profit. If one side gets too much, the deal will ultimately fail. Market conditions will always fluctuate and both sides need to respond to the ups and downs to achieve long term benefits.

Bill DiMasi

Jamul

Goverment workers have taken hits

Ah, U-T editorial staff, how you love to generalize. Do you realize that many Cal-PERS members have taken cut after cut, just like workers in the private sector? Many government employees have experienced pay cuts (after years of salary freezes), furloughs, increased medical premiums, layoffs, etc. You do a disservice when you insist that additional reductions to government pensions are the most important fix for the economy.

It would be nice to see stories on the hardships that have affected government agencies and their employees. You seem to forget that most government workers are in the middle class. The same group you keep saying you want to protect. Making it more difficult for hardworking people to sustain themselves while serving the public is not the perfect fix you make it out to be.